


Proxy

by brawltogethernow



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon - Manga, Friendship, Gen, Identity Porn, In Medias Res, Sharing a Body, and atem is a vengeance ghost, jounouchi is a good friend, so that's a weird combination
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-23
Updated: 2018-09-23
Packaged: 2019-07-15 21:20:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16071578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brawltogethernow/pseuds/brawltogethernow
Summary: One day, after solving the Millennium Puzzle but before coming to terms with the spirit within it, Yugi Moto disappeared. Shortly thereafter Jounouchi tracks him down - or tracks down somebody driving his body, at least.





	Proxy

**Author's Note:**

> _Wild Card_ has given me a _taste_ for Jounouchi point of view, what can I say.
> 
> I've accepted that I'll likely be adding to this, but it was originally a oneshot.

Three and a half weeks after Yugi disappears, Jounouchi catches sight of him in a crowd.

It’s just a glimpse, but he’s sure. After all: That hair.

Following him puts all of Jounouchi’s skills earned on the street to the test. He didn’t know Yugi could move like that, all jinky and with an unexpected disregard for both gravity and for the sort of quiet boundaries that keep society running. He hops over obstacles most people would go around with more agility than Jounouchi would have attributed to him, and clips right through property lines like they aren’t even there. But well, if he’d known everything there was to know about Yugi Moto, Jounouchi’d have been able to answer when Yugi’s grandpa asked him if he knew why he had disappeared.

The surprising effort keeping him in sight is taking and the creepy way Yugi is moving make Jounouchi want to grab the guy, but Yugi is Jounouchi’s _friend._ Jounouchi isn’t going to make him go anywhere he doesn’t want to. Unless _maybe_ it’s for his own good, but who’s Jounouchi to think he can judge that kind of thing? So he presses down the instinct to follow what’s been a sneaky hunt so far to its conclusion, and calls out instead.

“ _Yugi!_ ” he screams, when Yugi’s distinctive head is just about to bob out of sight again. Yugi’s trekked right out of the shopping district they started out in, and they’re each on opposite sides of the yard before an abandoned factory that was important before either of them was born, when this part of the city was prosperous, and hasn’t been since. Now it’s all grass growing through the cracks in the pavement just to die in the sun and the whole thing surrounded by tall rusted chain link.

Yugi freezes.

“Yugi, please,” says Jounouchi. He doesn’t really know where he’s going with this—he’s been talking to Yugi in his head since the other kid vanished, but it’s all been idle observations; he hasn’t exactly written out a script for this moment—but he’s gotta say _something_. “We—”

If there’s one thing he knows, it’s this.

“We’re friends, right? Do you just walk out on your friends?! Without any explanation!?”

Well, wouldja lookit that. It turns out he did have something saved up to say.

For a second Jounouchi is just staring at the weirdly stiff and upright line of Yugi’s scrawny shoulders, and he thinks maybe his friend is going to walk away without answering Jounouchi’s plea.

Then Yugi turns around just enough to look at Jounouchi over his shoulder, and Jounouchi doesn’t recognize him.

For a split second Jounouchi thinks he’s got the wrong person, and he almost stumbles out an apology, despite that being impossible unless Yugi has a secret twin brother or something. It’s just he doesn’t look anything like himself, despite looking exactly like himself. It’s something about the expression. And there’s a red light in his eyes, like Jounouchi’s staring down a feral animal.

And shit, _shit_ , Jounouchi’s been thinking so hard he forgot to _say_ anything, and now he’s standing here staring like a chump. “Just—just talk to me?” he says. Maybe if _he_ acts normal, that look will go away.

“I owe you that,” says Yugi, and he sounds weird too. What the heck has Jounouchi gotten himself _in_ to?

So Jounouchi’s not about to turn around and say “follow me”, ‘cause it feels like Yugi might vanish into mist and shadow if Jounouchi takes his eyes off him. But he wants to get him out of this yard, too. Everything feels tenuous here. It would be fine if they were a united front, but they’re not. The damn yard feels so _liminal,_ and what is Jounouchi even going to do if he loses Yugi again here? He doesn’t know. He’s afraid of himself: afraid if he fails he’ll just go back home.

Jounouchi walks up to Yugi carefully, tread soft in the shoes Yugi won for him. Yugi’s face never goes right, but he lets Jounouchi approach. He looks—sad. Maybe guilty and mournful. Jounouchi feels like he’s processing every emotion on Yugi’s face on a significant delay, because they’re not what those emotions usually look like _when they’re on Yugi’s face._ Jounouchi is starting to get really creeped out.

Once he’s closer he sees—

“Hey, where’s the Puzzle?” he asks.

Yugi’s expression does a thing—it darkens. No, it goes angry and regretful. No, it goes _more unhinged._ ‘Cause it was. Already. “That is the beginning of something I need to explain to you,” he—hedges. He looks simultaneously uncomfortable and more sure of himself than Jounouchi has ever seen Yugi in their entire acquaintance. Jeez, does he even know this kid at all?

Jounouchi reaches out and puts his hands on Yugi’s shoulders, reassuring himself that his friend isn’t some sort of figment but is in fact solid—if he isn’t dreaming all of this because of stress, which is starting to seem plausible. And then he just—kinda gently presses down. Yugi blinks at him, an almost normal expression but still with something slightly off about it, but obligingly sits down on the ground.

Jounouchi sits down across from him, folding his legs up lotus style. Maybe it’s stupid, but it feels less like Yugi might run away like this. Also Jounouchi is a tiny bit concerned that the face and the posture might be because Yugi is drugged, and he’s not an _expert_ or anything, but he’s pretty sure everybody staying the fuck still can’t really hurt with that.

“I know I’m not the brightest guy out there,” says Jounouchi. “But maybe you can just explain things to me.” He doesn’t say, _Your grandpa’s dying with worry,_ or, _You’re in more trouble at school every day,_ or, _The police are looking for you._ He’s not wasting this shot on a guilt trip. It’s Yugi, and Yugi’s smarter than he is and probably has a reason.

Jounouchi just wants Yugi to tell _him_ what it is.

Yugi inhales through his teeth, _weird weird weird,_ all his mannerisms today are _so weird._ Jounouchi isn’t sure he’s ever seen Yugi go this long without making some expression that scrunches up his whole face.

“I am not Yugi Moto,” says Yugi, like it’s a cold fact.

Jounouchi looks at his face, all grim spooky lines, and...believes him.

He holds Jounouchi’s gaze, grim, not expecting Jounouchi to take his word for it. There’s worry around the guy’s eyes. If this isn’t Yugi, he still cares about Jounouchi’s opinion.

“So are you like his long lost twin or something?” Jounouchi asks.

Not Yugi Moto actually snorts a startled laugh—then looks surprised, kind of like a kitten startled by its own sneeze.

“ _No_ ,” he chokes out, still kind of chortling. Then he pauses. Not in a reticent way. More like someone who _wants_ to elaborate, but isn’t sure how to get started.

Jounouchi decides to throw the guy a bone. “And this has to do with...the Puzzle being missing?” he prompts.

Not Yugi Moto looks down, hands cradled in his lap like, well, like he’s missing a huge-ass golden artifact there, and for the first time looks...as small as Yugi usually does.

“My...soul,” he starts, stops. Starts again. “Was—locked within the Puzzle. I—I don’t know what exactly I am.”

Jounouchi chews this over. It’s possible Yugi is insane. Jounouchi decides that if Yugi is insane he is going to be supportive.

Not Yugi Moto twists his hands together. “I only realized I was someone different than Yugi after he was...”

He raises his head and meets Jounouchi’s eyes, and his are blazing. “Yugi has been stolen. And I still haven’t gotten him back.”


End file.
